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Space Moguls is a four-player strategy game that pays tribute to the classic M.U.L.E.

In the near future, reality TV shows have exploited every location on Planet Earth. It is time to go to space. Would-be moguls board the Space Yacht and travel to other planets. Here they must purchase and build high-tech droids to collect the planet's resources – harvesting food, gathering energy and raw materials, and mining for ore and rare minerals. Random events can help or hinder; space pirates steal production, swarms of space bees reduce energy output and a meteorite can smash into a sector (possibly leaving rare minerals behind). At the end of each turn, the trading phase happens. For each resource, the player can sell their stocks to other players or the store, or choose to buy more. At the end of the game the player who has earnt the most (in terms of assets and money) is crowned the winner.

The players can choose to watch the attract sequence and credits from the menu, before changing options. These include the number of turns the game will last, as well as cosmetic options (changing the font size in the border, useful for some TVs/monitors). Up to four human players can take part, thanks to the support of keys, joystick and joystick interfaces (Protovision, SuperPad and Inception). Computer A.I. will control any player not selected. There are several different races/characters, before a planet is chosen from the four available. Each planet has different terrain and graphics.

The Space Yacht drops off the characters at the start of the first season. The planet surface is depicted as a map of hexes, with the town central. At the start, not all of the hexes are visible; more are revealed each season. The Land Grant allows each player to select a hex to add to their control, with some phases giving an auction for a randomly chosen hex. The players then take it in turns, with a time limit to make their move (and players low on food suffer a time penalty, reducing their time limit). Terrain affects how quickly the player can move around, and what resource is found there. Mountains are more likely to contain ore, while desert squares generate more (solar) energy. The player must enter the town to purchase a droid and then equip it for a task – food, energy, materials, ore mining or rare mineral collecting. Droids will cost an increasing amount of money and materials to buy, once the store's initial stock has sold. Leaving town, the droid must be taken to a hex the player owns and be installed. Returning to the town, the players can also consult the land registry (to sell off land or have it evaluated) and finally visit the pub (time remaining is turned into bonus cash).

During a player's turn, a small animal (known as a Grumpling) may appear on the map. If the player can get close enough and press Fire, they capture the creature. Different creatures have different effects, giving or taking resources and cash. A random bonus/penalty can happen at the start of each player's turn (e.g. winning an 'iBay' auction for extra cash, or having to make droid repairs) and global events can happen at the end of a turn (for example, rainstorms flooding the store to prevent trading). The vital phase is production, with dots beside each hex showing what has been produced.

During the trading sequence, bars and numbers display how much of each resource a player has produced or used up. Bars show the minimum of each resource (food and energy) required for the next turn. Moving to the top of the screen selects Buying, moving to the bottom of the screen is used for Selling. When the trading phase starts, characters move up or down. If they meet, they can trade between the two meeting characters. If there is no character to trade with, reaching the top or bottom line does business with the store instead (depending on whether the store has stock). At the end of the turn the players are ranked by the value of their assets and money. Once the Space Yacht has returned to collect the moguls, the overall winner is declared in an animated sequence.

The aim of the game was to pay tribute to Dani Bunten's strategy classic M.U.L.E. It succeeds, adding many great ideas and looking superb. The menus are clear and precise, giving plenty of options. The different characters are great, especially the robot Commodore LXIV (a clever reference to Futurama, and one of many Easter Eggs). The different planets have subtly different graphics and terrain, giving lots of replayability. The music and sound are very pleasant too. A lot of effort has also gone into the packaging, with some excellent “feelies” including a space ticket and trading license. Playing from cartridge is sublime, but disk access is mitigated by the clever presentation and fast loader. As a solo player there is a challenge here, but it is even more fun with four humans gathered around the monitor.

If you have not played M.U.L.E. then the trading sequence can be quite confusing at first. On the odd occasion the computer A.I. will make a seemingly bad decision, but in general they provide a strong opponent. If the game doesn't grab you at first, then it will take time to appreciate the depth on offer.

A superb tribute to a classic game, with modern presentation and brilliant multiplayer fun just like a classic board game.